Why Can't We Ban Assault Rifles?

Why can't we? Well, first, we need to know what we want to ban. Answer: Simple. We want to ban the kind of assault rifles used in the mass shootings that have occurred. Normal people don't use such firearms, do they?

Wait a minute. The answer is NOT that simple. What really is an assault rifle?

The Nazi's invented the assault rifle in WW II. It was a fully automatic rifle or carbine (meaning a rifle with a shorter barrel) that was used to assault enemy positions.

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So, an assault rifle is a fully automatic firearm. What's that? A firearm that, with one pull of the trigger will continue to fire all rounds of ammunition until the ammunition is gone. Typically, 20 to 30 rounds. The automatic firearms usually shoot at the rate of 400 to 1,000 rounds per minute. At 400 rounds per minute, 20 rounds only last 0.05 minutes, or 3 seconds. Only vehicle-mounted weapons shoot 200 or more rounds in a minute, because they're usually belt-fed, with an ammo box containing 200 to 1,000 rounds of ammo.

This is not something that normal civilians can obtain, and most certainly is not what has been used in any of the recent mass shootings.

The anti-civil-rights people have been deliberately misleading the public for many years on this issue, and they know better. Here's a quote from Josh Sugarman, of the Violence Policy Center: "The public's confusion over fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons - anything that looks like a machine gun is presumed to be a machine gun - can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons."

So, if actual assault rifles are not what has been used in any of these mass shootings, what have they been using?

They have been using semi-automatic (one shot per trigger pull, with the firearm loading another round after the first one has been fired) "Modern Sporting Rifles" ("MSR's").

But, who needs or uses these "Modern Sporting Rifles"? Aren't they only for military use?

First, they are not for military use at all, and never have been. The military uses fully automatic rifles assault rifles, not MSR's.

Modern Sporting Rifles are used by civilians for many things. They are used by target shooters, including those who shoot at the National Matches every year. For those categories, nothing else is allowed to be used.

They are used by countless thousands of hunters in the U.S. and elsewhere. As they have been produced in an ever-growing selection of calibers, they can be used for anything up to dangerous African game. Varmint hunters use them. Deer hunters use them. Elk hunters use them. Prairie dog and woodchuck hunters use them. Doctors, dentists, businesspeople, congress members and hundreds of other categories of people use them. They are used by everyday people for home defense.

But, aren't they only used for killing people? Well, other than the military, very, very seldom are they used against people except in countries where rebellion or war is taking place. Examples include Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and various countries in Africa.

Another interesting fact, from a National Shooting Sports survey of gun owners, is that 44% of MSR owners are current and/or former military and/or police officers, the most knowledgeable of MSR owners. Actually, the most prolific MSR salesperson of all time has been Barack Obama! According to the survey, prior to 2009, only 12% of MSR owners bought their first MSR. Two-thirds of all MSR owners bought their most recent MSR in 2009 or 2010. And 81% of them were new guns, not used, meaning that many, many thousands of new MSR's have been bought after Obama's election. The trend has only continued up from there.

During his first administration, Obama did not push an anti-civil-rights program. Gun owners knew that he would, eventually. After he won his second election, he has done exactly what millions feared: He's proposing and supporting the banning of one of our civil rights, gun ownership. He's a flat-out liar, and has only waited for the "right" crisis to come along to show his hand.

R. Theron Cammer is a firearms instructor of a Washington State LLC. He has no ability to speak for the NRA or any organization other than Alt Amm, LLC.

He has been certified by the NRA as an NRA Training Counselor, Refuse To Be A Victim Regional Counselor and a Chief Range Safety Officer, to teach firearms safety courses to the general public, as well as to teach people to become NRA Certified Instructors, enabling them to teach the general public.

He has taught between 100 and 150 Instructor Certification courses within the last 10 years.

This instruction is done as a public service, on a not-for-profit basis.

His goal, for the last 20 years, has been to bring firearms safety classes to the public by teaching courses as well as by creating Instructors.